A Decade of Maha, Munch Madness, and Best of Omaha

Jun 20, 2018 03:24PM
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By Doug Meigs

Oh, Maha, you make this city a better place. Maha Music Festival turns 10 years old this summer. In honor of the milestone, Omaha Magazine has partnered with the festival to produce a special (sponsored) cover of our full city edition with the title “Maha” Magazine.

Maha is expanding to two days this year (Aug. 17-18) and has absorbed the Omaha-based tech/entrepreneurship conference Big Omaha. Music festival headliners include national acts Weezer, Father John Misty, and TV on the Radio. Meanwhile, local Nebraska acts include up-and-coming musicians Mesonjixx and David Nance.

But this July/August issue of Omaha Magazine is also our food issue. Every story in the issue incorporates some sort of food angle. So it’s worth noting that Dante Pizzeria will be featured in Maha’s VIP area along with offerings from Kitchen Table, while Dandelion Pop-Up will curate lunch offerings from local chefs at Big Omaha.

Food Issue Launch Party

The Florence Mill Farmer’s Market will once again host the launch party for our annual food issue. This is the second year we have gone all-in with food-related editorial content, and it is the second year we are hosting a watermelon-eating contest.

The watermelon-eating contest is open to the public. RSVP on our Facebook event page (http://bit.ly/2K1sc1d) for the July/August launch party to ensure your spot. We are hosting adult (age 18 and up) and youth categories. Watermelons are once again sponsored by the Florence neighborhood’s Hy-Vee. Top-three finishers in each age category will win a choice of gift certificates from restaurants advertising in Omaha Magazine. Prizes range in value from $20-$50, offered by Upstream, DJ’s Dugout, Tired Texan BBQ, FirstWatch, and Jazz.

There will be musicians, artists, calves, and chickens at the launch party, along with all the organic produce, baked goods, and craft vendors who are regular fixtures of the Florence Mill Farmers Market (which recurs every Sunday throughout the summer).

Munch Madness Bracket

Omaha Magazine’s latest city edition takes a deep dive into the zip codes of the metro area. Writer Sara Locke worked with six local Instagrammers to compile a list of favorite dishes in every zip code. There are 49 metro-area zip codes in total, according to our tally, and we narrowed selections down to one dish for every zip code.

Our foodie consultants are narrowing the pool down to 32 for Munch Madness (a bracket styled after March Madness), which we will share on Omaha Magazine’s social media channels. Zip codes will be randomly selected for dishes to compete one-on-one in polls. Winners will advance to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. We will announce the bracket at our launch party.

Best Of Omaha

We hope this zip code story and our Munch Madness bracket will prompt readers to think about the best restaurants—in addition to the best of other services and products—in the Omaha area. Voting in our annual Best of Omaha contest begins July 1 and continues through Aug. 20.

And speaking of “the best,” Omaha Magazine is not just the best magazine in the city, we were named Magazine of the Year on May 4 at the 2018 Great Plains Journalism Awards in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We received 20 awards for design, photography, multimedia, and writing produced in 2017.

Thank you, subscribers, for supporting our dedication to community journalism. If you are not yet a subscriber, visit omahamagazine.com/subscribe to learn more.